This is low-level nuts and bolts stuff. I think it might be useful for teaching high schoolers, but I teach more high brow stuff in my class, so who knows. ( )

Great discussion about how to think about writing from both a writer's and reader's perspective. I definitely want to go back and actually do the exercises. ( )

The book itself is informative, clever, and well-written. However, I found many of the examples to be dry and irrelevant.
5 stars for the book, 3 stars for the examples. ( )

I love LeGuin's sense of humor and also bossiness (marking the text with bossy little symbols, for hard words, for instance). This is definitely a book for beginner's -- great advice from a master, but for anyone whose written for awhile, most of it is very, very basic and practically second nature. A decent refresher, but more for young people or those just starting to write. ( )

“Steering the Craft” consists of 10 chapters, each devoted to a single topic. The chapters provide a brief turorial from LeGuin’s perspective, followed by excerpts from classic works to illustrate the point. Some chapters also provide exercises readers can use to practice the skill discussed in the chapter. The topics covered are: sound and rhythm in writing; punctuation and grammar; sentence length and complexity; repetition; the use of adverbs and adjectives; verbs; point of view and voice; changing point of view; indirect narration; and crowing and leaping.

For the most part the topics are covered at a basic level and the examples vary in the clarity with which they illustrate the point she is trying to make. The most useful tutorials focus on point of view and editing. Individuals seriously interested in writing who have advanced beyond rank beginner will find little of use in “Steering the Craft” beyond those chapters. ( )